The Brilliance and Bravery of Ludwig von Mises

The Free Market 30, no. 4 (April 2012)

 

One hundred years ago this June, Ludwig von Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit was published. Because this was Mises’s first great contribution to human understanding, we should also celebrate this year as the centennial of the start of his career as a creative genius upon the world-stage.

Mises wrote his first treatise in the dark, foreboding days before World War I. This gave the project urgency and greatly affected its make-up. He would later write in his Notes and Recollections,

Horrible Schools for the Whole World

The Free Market 30, no. 7 (July 2012)

 

At a United Nations meeting in the year 2000, the world’s governments agreed on the goal of enrolling every child on the planet in primary schooling by 2015. Strangely, this lofty plan does not say anything about the quality of schooling; the whole idea is to get children into government-approved classrooms, apparently regardless of what happens there.

The Keynesian Abyss

The Free Market 30, no. 8 (August 2012)

 

Perhaps the greatest modern champion of central economic planning was the twentieth-century English economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes advocated the idea that the government should play a large, active role in the economy. Among the consequences of Keynes’ economic theories, whether intended or unintended, is the fact that Western economies today are characterized by large, central governments, central banks, and massive debts.

Life Before FEMA

The Free Market 30, no. 9 (September 2012)

 

For real life-headlines worthy of The Onion, one needs look no further than the doings of the U.S. government and its agencies. One week after Hurricane Sandy devastated the New York area, with a new storm on the way and almost 10,000 Staten Islanders still without power and scavenging for food, “FEMA Center Closed Due to Bad Weather” hung on the door of a newly-opened Staten Island FEMA office. Ten FEMA offices in the disaster- stricken area actually closed as the second storm hit.

Two Sides of the Same Debased Coin

The Free Market 31, no. 1 (January 2013)

 

In the beginning of The General Theory, John Maynard Keynes says that his ideas will no doubt be rejected because they are so novel and revolutionary. Toward the end of the same book, he seems to have forgotten this, because now he says he is reviving the same centuries-old ideas that he had once dismissed as the most absurd fallacies. At least he acknowledges that he is changing his position, although he does not explain how his ideas can be new, revolutionary, and also centuries old.